You Said You Loved Me As You Left Me
by lolly.byes
Summary: A look into the past of Eli Goldsworthy, who lived a rough life, and still, past trailing behind him every step of the way, he tries to stride into a brighter future.  Note: this goes from Eli/Julia to Eli/Clare
1. Chapter 1

Saying goodbye is hard, especially when you're not the one who wanted to in the first place. When everything was once perfect—or, as perfect as they've ever been, even if it was an acquired taste for living. But when you were once happy with the way everything was, to have it ripped out underneath you is like a stab directly in the heart, and then to have to say goodbye to everything you once new? It's hard. Really hard.

But what's harder is saying hello. How does someone who's lived their whole life as an outcast, and a "bad boy", whose reputation got the better of him, just pluck himself from the world he lived his whole life in and start anew with two years left of high school?

I could have dropped out, but that would have disappointed so many people, including myself, my family, and Julia. I didn't want to no longer go to school. I wanted to keep myself away from the world in hopes that I wouldn't ruin anymore lives.

But I guess that was inevitable, and as I pulled up into the Degrassi High School parking lot, the backseat of my car just felt heavy. As did the passenger seat. My past, and my memories, and my faults were all still with me, weighing down the air around me, and for a moment, before I let myself drive on any further, I closed my eyes and let the tears roll back in


	2. Chapter 2

I suppose it began in middle school. That, itself, should have been a warning. When do good things ever come out of junior high? Of course, I didn't know any better. I was twelve years old and thought that was 'mature'. It was the summer between sixth and seventh grade. I'd spent it with the same four people, the only non-family members I had in my life that actually liked me.

There was Slade Demarco, who could have almost passed as my brother. He and I both had black hair and green eyes, only his eyes were lighter than mine, and his hair, straight and falling down his neck, naturally looked as such. From the looks of him, you'd think that girls would love to get next to him, but in reality, everyone thought that he was strange. He was quiet among strangers, and probably smarter than most of our grade, so he spoke in such an advanced way that it almost seemed stupid. Kids made fun of him for the points he would make in class, and the serious look to him he had whenever he was trying to concentrate, so they amplified it to a point of ridicule by seventh grade.

Emily Tier, who was a year younger than me but always taller, was labeled as "emo". People liked to spread rumors about her, saying that she cut herself and that she was actually a lesbian. She was naturally a curly-haired strawberry blonde, but over the summer, we dyed our hair black together, and cut hers so that it barely reached her shoulders. She also learned how to straighten and tease it, as well as apply eyeliner, which didn't the way people looked at her.

Her best friend, Cadence Mihan, was probably stranger than the rest of us. She had a head full of platinum blonde hair, a slightly puffy face, and a petite, straight, almost boyish frame. She liked to wear strange outfits: shorts with leggings, oversized glasses with no lenses, midriff T-shirts that were two sizes too big…she was also very loud and straightforward, which made most of her and Emily's grade dislike her—as well as the rest of the school.

However, she had another friend who was in his freshman year of high school that was just as weird if not weirder; Austin Terrance. He was probably insane in a literal sense. He screamed a lot, and was infamous for his anger issues, and liked to laugh at the most inappropriate times. He hugged everybody that he met, whether they wanted to or not, he dyed his hair many different colors at once and teased it as high as it would go. He even wore yellow cat eye contacts. Even though they were three years apart, I was certain that he had a crush on Cadence. That just made it worse: he was, what, fourteen? She was eleven. It was weird, but I never said anything.

And then there was me, Elijah Goldsworthy—though, my friends all called me Eli. I was kind of short and scrawny, and like the others, I didn't dress like most of the kids my age, so I was a target. My hair was about as long as Slade's and wavy. Naturally, it was dark brown, but over the summer, when Emily dyed her hair black, I dyed mine black, too. My eyes were green, but hard to see behind the glasses that my mother insisted that I needed. I wasn't quiet, per se: I just had nothing nice to say to the rest of my school, so they quickly learned to hate me.

Among our peers at N.J. Braunman junior high, we were known as the outcasts. We didn't necessarily see it as a bad thing, since we still all had each other. It had been that way since our last years at elementary school. We never left home by ourselves, seeing as we were all terrified of getting jumped, but in a group, everyone kept their distances. They made fun of us, but at a safe few feet away.

But that wasn't what started the 180-degree turn that my life turned on. Had everything just stayed the way it was, my life would have had a completely different turnout. That, I'm positive of.

I remember the date and everything: July 22nd, 2006. Emily and I had just finished doing our hair. Slade was over, propped on the living room sofa, mindlessly watching television. We'd discovered FUSE a few days prior, and since my house was the only one with both cable T.V. and an available living room to hang out in, we'd been hanging out here ever since. "You know, the singer from My Chemical Romance doesn't have black hair anymore," He announced.

I had just turned off the faucet and Emily handed me a stained, off-white towel that my mom always used to dye her hair with. I started rubbing it through my own hair as I called back to him. "Oh really?"

"Yeah," He shouted. "They're showing a teaser for their new album. His hair is practically white now. And he cut it really short."

"Eli, you should tie your towel around your hair," Emily said. She, of course, instantly wrapped her head in a towel when she washed it in the sink.

I, however, shook my head, opting to drape it around my shoulders as I looked at the T.V. Before the clip went off, I got a glimpse of the man's head. I shrugged, "Oh well. I can look like some other celebrity."

"The guitarist still has black hair," Slade told me.

"Yeah, and the bassist…well it's dark brown. You still look really good, though."

"Thanks," I ruffled my hair with the towel some more, trying to mop up as much water as I could. I already knew who was at the door when it rang.

"You can come in, guys!" I shouted, and of course, Cadence and Austin made their ways through the kitchen into the living room. There was a flurry of greetings, hugs, and compliments before we all clustered on the two couches, like we normally do.

We had no problem spending our summer this way. We would all gather at one of our houses and hang out wherever we could find room, whether it be a living room, a bedroom, a den, or a basement. Someone would pop a few bags of popcorn, we'd load up on any drink that was loaded with caffeine, and we'd watch music videos and talk for hours. To us, it was fun, however, our parents always seemed bothered by it. Every day when an older family member would pass through the room, they'd give us the typical _When I was your age I spent my summers outside, playing with the neighborhood kids! My parents had to **make me come **home! _speech. We'd learned to tune them out.

However, my mom was a different story that day. She came into the room and stood in front of the T.V., arms folded over her chest. "Elijah, this is getting ridiculous."

My friends snickered at the use of my real name. I threw my arms out in front of me. "What?"

"This is the fourth day in a row that you've had people over just to watch T.V. Go out and do something."

"But ma, this is the only house that we can watch FUSE on—"

"I don't care!" She said. "You have a little more than a month left of summer vacation and I can't have you wasting it by sitting on your ass all day! Go show off your new hair to the kids down the block."

I rolled my eyes. "The kids down the block don't want to see my new hair. They hate me."

"Denise's kids? They don't hate you. They just wished you dressed a little better, and I don't blame them."

My eyes narrowed.

She ignored it. "Look, you're way too young to be rebelling against society and living a sheltered life."

"I'm not trying to rebel against anyone—"

"Good! So I guess you won't be rebelling against me telling you to get out of the house." She directed her words at me, but I could see her gaze float around at the others. In her words, she couldn't parent the rest of them 'because they weren't her kids to watch over', but she still had something to say about all of us, whether she made it obvious or not.

"There is nothing to do," I told her. "We have nowhere to go. Everyone hates us."

She groaned, "Would you stop saying that! No one _hates_ you!"

"Wanna bet?" I mumbled.

She rolled her eyes. "How about you go greet the new neighbors that moved in the other day across the street?"

My brow furrowed. "We have new neighbors?"

"Yes, Eli." She said, the patience in her voice growing thin. "The Mars's? They just moved into that little grey house across from ours. I talked to them the day they got here."

"Why would they want us to go, then, if you already did?"

"You might find them interesting. The husband is a mortician."

"Hmm…" I pressed my lips together, looking around to my friends. Slade and Austin were both staring at the carpet, not wanting to make eye contact. Cadence stared absentmindedly at my mother. Emily was going between examining her cuticles and looking at me.

She gave a slight shrug. "That's pretty cool."

"I thought you guys would like that," My mom smiled curtly. "I know you're all into darkness and…death and…all that shit…"

I couldn't help but smirk, even though I couldn't tell whether or not she was trying to be funny. She didn't understand us. As a kid, she was popular. She was on the cheerleading squad, the softball team, the head of her school's student council and dance committees. She and all of her friends were normal girls who lead normal lives, so seeing me be so abnormal was hard for her. However, she was getting used to it in her own little ways.

"Maybe we'll meet him another time, though," I suggested. "Like, as a family."

My mother grimaced. "Well, how about you guys go now, while you're all together?"

I blinked a few times. "I have people over. I don't really want to just bring them to some new neighbor's house."

"But, Eli—"

"What?"

She groaned. "Look, he has a daughter, and I kind of told him that I had a son her age—"

"Oh God, mom, you didn't."

She winced. "I kind of promised him that you kids would show her around the neighborhood?"

I rolled my eyes. "Really?"

"Look, it's not like I ask for much from you, Elijah. You could at least be courteous to our neighbors and welcome them here."

"But that's so _awkward_" I whined. I didn't need my mom trying to make friends for me. I had my group, and it was golden the way it was. Throwing a new girl into the mix would balance out the genders, but it wouldn't do any other good. I could tell.

"Just do it, Eli," She commanded me, hands on hips. Once the hands were on the hips, I knew that she was serious. "And you can say that you need to be home by dinner so you'll have a time limit."

I grumbled incoherently as I slumped off of the couch. "_Fine_," I said reluctantly. "But I'm gonna be home by six."

"Seven-thirty," She corrected, then added in a huff, "And put your glasses on! I'm not letting you out blind!"

I groaned once again but crossed the room towards the mantle above the T.V. as my friends rose from their seats. I picked up my glasses and put them on. Really, they didn't make a difference. I saw perfectly clear, but according to my mom, the doctor said that I couldn't see very sharply. Really, I just listened to her so that she'd shut up. Glasses were good to wear on days that I didn't feel like wearing eyeliner.

The group of us left the house. It wasn't swelteringly hot out, but it was warm and humid, which just made the thirty seconds of walking even easier to complain about. The group elected me as the one to go on the doorstep and ring the bell, since my mother was the one who volunteered us for this feat. Unenthusiastically, I did so, leaning back with my hands in my pockets while I waited.

A man answered the door first. He couldn't have been younger than forty, but he had a boyish smile. He had a pale face with slight wrinkles and laugh lines with sunken eyes behind his wire-rimmed circular glasses. His hair was probably supposed to be a dark brown, but it was seasoned with greys, and his hairline receded back a few inches more than it was supposed to. He was dressed in a simple black button-down with grey slacks, and white lab coat open on his front. "Hi!" He asked with an expecting smile.

"Um, hi, sir," I smiled timidly. "My name is Eli Goldsworthy?"

"Oh, yes," He grinned, putting a hand out. He had a very firm, enthusiastic handshake. Around that moment, I started noticing the lofty chemical and floral scent that the house's open door emitted. _Every home has its smell, I guess._ "Your mother was telling me about you."

"Yeah, she said for me to show your daughter around the town?"

"That would be delightful," He beamed before turning back into the house and calling. "Julia!"

I turned back to my friends, who were all chuckling to themselves. "Is this guy for real?" Austin smirked. "He sounds like one of those guys you'd hear advertising for heartburn medication."

"He looks like one of the guys you'd see on the commercials, too," Cadence sneered. "How old is he, sixty?"

"Shh, guys," I laughed, turning back towards the door as I heard footsteps back down a tile hallway. The front door opened again and my eyes widened.

She was about my height, maybe a little taller, with a full head of long, black hair. Had I not known otherwise, I would have suspected her to be fifteen or sixteen, not twelve or thirteen. I couldn't tell what color her eyes were, but they were shaded in perfectly with what had to be liquid eyeliner and shadow. She smiled: she had perfect teeth, like the kind you get when you just get your braces taken off. She also wore copper lipstick. "Hey?"

I stared at her for a moment. I liked her outfit. She was wearing a long-sleeved fishnet shirt underneath a black Alice In Chains T-shirt. Her jeans were dark-washed and slim-fit, but she wasn't wearing any shoes. Somehow, I noticed that both her fingernails and toenails were painted black, so perfect that it was probably freshly-done. A glimpse of a silver-studded belt shone on her right hip, where her t-shirt was hitched up a bit.

I snapped myself out of the daze in time to see the start of confusion on her face. "Hi," I said. "I'm uh…I'm Eli Goldsworthy?"

"Oh, right, the neighbor kid!" She had that same mask of bashfulness that her father had. While his seemed natural, though, hers seemed artificial and forced.

"…Yeah, uh," I pointed a thumb back towards my house. "My mom told me to show you around the neighborhood?"

Her thin eyebrows rose and she glanced past my shoulder, eyeing my other friends before they finally looked back into mine. They were brown, I realized. It took her a moment before she put on a smile. "Oh, uh, no thank you." And with that, she closed the door.

Simple as that.

No goodbye, no well-wishes, no rain check, 'maybe some other time'.

Not even a disgusted look, a glare, and 'ew, why would I want to be around you guys?'

She declined, but she _smiled_, and just shut the door on us, leaving me out on the stoop with the lingering chemical-flower smell and the soft chill up my spine. What had just happened, and why was I bothered by it?

"Well!" I heard Emily say with a clap of her hands. "That was easy enough!"

I turned around, looking down towards the group without stepping off. "Did you guys see that?"

"Yeah, it was weird," Austin chuckled.

"She was really pretty, though," Cadence beamed. "I wonder what kind of makeup she uses."

I hopped off the doorstep. "That was weird, though," I said. "She just said no and left us here."

Emily gave a shrug. "Whatever. If she's not interested, she's not interested. We can go tell your mom that?"

I stood there for a moment, blankly thinking, but I nodded and we started back. Somehow, though, even at that moment, I knew that everything was about to change.


	3. Chapter 3

The days following, I went about like I normally would—or, at least I acted like I did.

After the day I met Julia Mars, I was constantly aware as to where she was in relation to me—or, at least, I tried to be.

My friends and I gathered at my house yet again. My mom was more lenient, since I obeyed her and went to the neighbor's house that day. It was getting close to 7:30 P.M. and soon, the group would split up to have dinner at our own houses. I waded into the kitchen where my mom stood, intently stirring some sort of sauce and vegetable in a pan. I leaned up against the sink. "Hey."

She glanced over and smiled a bit. "Hi?"

I chewed on the corner of my bottom lip, trying to phrase the question I had in mind. I knew that my mother kept looking at me, but there was no impatience or disgust in her stature. That was one of the things that I loved about my mother: no matter how strange I got, I knew that she loved me, and she appreciated the mere fact that I wanted to come in and talk to her about something. She could see it in my eyes. "I know we can't tonight, but, uh…"

She smiled a little bit more, setting her wooden spoon down on the metal stovetop and sifting through the seasoning shelf. "But what?"

"Do you think one of these nights we could invite the Mars's over for dinner?"

Her eyebrows rose with surprise; clearly, that wasn't something she expected from me, at all. She grabbed for a glass bottle of sesame seeds. "Oh! Uh…that would be nice." She chuckled. "I'm just kind of surprised that you'd be asking."

I gave a slight shrug. "Julia and I didn't really get to talk, remember?"

"So this is about Julia, huh?" The smile on her face turned into a smirk as she sprinkled the seeds on and stirred.

I felt a burning in my cheekbones. Ever since the ordeal on her porch that day, I'd been fascinated by Julia Mars. I couldn't get her out of my mind, the littlest details preserved in my memories; the perfect lines of eye makeup that rimmed her lids, the slight pout to her lips, the one little wave of hair on the far part of her bangs that she probably missed when she straightened it, the way one sleeve of her fishnet shirt crept halfway over the top of her hand while the other was bunched a bit by her wrist, the curve of her sides, the almost distant look in her amber-brown eyes when she spoke to us…why did she close the door like that? Like she was politely declining but wanting us to leave immediately? I wanted to get to know her more, but there was no way of doing it.

"What, is she cute?"

"No." I lied.

My mom beamed, and I could tell that she heard the defensiveness in my tone. She chose not to make note of it, though. "Well, how about when your friends all leave, you go across the street and ask them to come over for dinner tomorrow?"

I beamed and agreed to it immediately. For a second, I remembered the first time my mother asked me to go to their house, when she practically had to beg me before I agreed to it. Now, I was the one begging for a reason to go there, and she provided me with one.

I'd never been so happy to see my friends leave before. The moment they were all gone, I went into the bathroom, adjusted my eyeliner and changed into a nicer-looking black T-shirt. Mom yelled at me, once again, to put my glasses on, and with that, I was at the door.

Nearly running across the street, I worded my greeting in my head. However, I'd planned for Julia to answer the door, and instead, her father opened the door. "Hey Eli!" He smiled.

"Hey," I beamed, ignoring the disappointment that etched in my gut. "Um, my mom sent me."

His smile faltered a bit. "Oh, is this about Julia again? Sorry about last time. I don't know what's gotten into her."

"No," I shook my head. "That's okay. Uh…we were just wondering if you guys would like to come over for dinner tomorrow? You and Julia and…I don't know if you have a wife or anything…"

He smiled, a sad glint in his eyes. "Sadly, no. It's just me and my two girls."

"Oh." Not gonna lie, I was half-expecting him to politely decline and close the door. However, I figured that he was more mature than that.

I was surprised when he broke out in another grin, though. "We'd love to. Tell your mother that we'll bring dessert."

"Awesome," I beamed, and with a few more words, I turned back to run back to my house, hope clear in my chest.

"Eli, can you set the table?" My mom asked from the kitchen. Knowing that we had people coming over, she'd been slaving over dinner for hours. I'd woken up to the smell of tomato sauce and fresh breadcrumb. I felt useless, sitting around the house in my pajamas, watching music videos as my mom cooked, refusing help.

My dad wasn't around very often, and today wasn't an exception. He worked an office job for a record label. He wasn't really in the musical hierarchy, but he made enough money, and he brought home new music for me to listen to. Even though he was out all day, and usually all night, he made sure to put in for early leave that night.

I wasn't sure how I felt about that, to be honest. My dad really wasn't my favorite person in the world. We didn't talk much, and we didn't have one of those close father-son relationships. We never did. I thought it was just because he was always disappointed in me, but as we got older, my mother explained the problem. He'd never wanted kids, even before they got married. He even got a vasectomy against my mother's will to make sure that they wouldn't be able to have kids. She didn't know this until she got pregnant with me, and he started freaking out. It turned out that the surgery was botched. While they had disconnected his urethra from his testicles, where sperm is produced, they didn't do a good job of cutting off the seminal vesicle, where sperm is kept once its made. There was still a bit of connecting tissue and the doctors said that there is a slim—but still possible—chance of sperm coming out from it and impregnating my mother.

As gross as it was to think about, I had to know why my father resented me. He was always proud of me, and I was sure that he loved me, but never like a father loves his son. More like an uncle to a nephew, or a teacher to his student. He was always so distant, and it just made me want to strive to be closer to him.

Maybe that was why I was so determined to get closer to Julia. She shared that at-a-distance trait, and I wanted to overcome it.

…But I digress.

He made sure to be home by six, when the Mars's were supposed to come over. By five-thirty, I was freshly-showered, newly-blackened hair straightened, eyeliner perfect, glasses on face, in a red button-down with a black vest and a pair of black, skinny-fit pants. I didn't wear shoes in my house, but I at least made sure my socks matched. I wanted to look presentable.

Usually, at dinnertime, my mother and I eat in the kitchen. We had a small wooden table with three chairs, even though my dad's chair was usually empty. However, when we had company, we took all of the storage off of the dining room table and tidied it up. It was a nice room, when it use. It was longer than it was wide, with cranberry-red walls and a polished, dark granite floor. We had a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling and a glass table with iron legs. It was probably the fanciest room in the house, and with good reason, since it was the one that we kept guests herded in.

I set the table using our good plates and silverware, making sure that each place setting was symmetrical. I wanted our family to make a good impression on them. Mom put a pan of baked ziti into the oven, as well as a tray of chicken cutlet parmesan, when the doorbell rang. She looked at me and smiled, knowing that I wanted to answer it. I rolled my eyes, but she could tell that I was mentally thanking her.

Mr. Mars looked bright and old as ever, but there were less dark circles under his eyes, and the smile on his face didn't fail him. "Hey Eli!" He held out a box wrapped in twine. "I told you I'd bring dessert."

"And you didn't dissappoint," I smirked, taking the box from him. "I'm kind of surprised that you learned my name."

"I never forget a name," He told me. "I could tell you each and every person that I've ever had to work on. I'm not good with faces, but names I'm good with."

"Well, I'm sure not all of the people you worked with _had _faces."

He smirked. "Mortician humor. I like you, kid."

"Thank you, sir," And I stepped aside, politely letting him through, two young girls following behind. The first had to be about four years old, but she looked so much like her sister that it was ridiculous. She long black hair had big brown eyes and a wide smile with her baby teeth spaced a little apart from one another. She was wearing a little white dress with pink flowers on the puffy tulle skirt and a black shrug. She also wore black tap shoes, which I found as she walked in on the tile floor.

Then, Julia followed, and just like the last time I saw her, she was a vision. Her hair was straightened and down, and her makeup was a lot thinner, so I got to see the natural beauty to her face. She only wore eyeliner and a thin brush of grey shadow, and her lips were bare. It made her look even prettier. She wore a short-sleeved black blouse, a lacey black skirt with matching gloves, a pair of red leggings, and a pair of black leather platform boots that made her a couple of inches taller than me. I gaped a bit as she walked by, quickly closing my mouth and closing the door in hopes that she wouldn't see.

Dinner was…awkward…to say the least. My dad came home and sat at the head of the table, my mother on his right and Mr. Mars on his left. Audrilily (pronounced AWE-dri-lily) sat next to him to ensure that she didn't make a mess, and Julia sat next to her. I was next to my mom, across the table from Audrilily. Of course, that disappointed me, but there was nothing to say about that.

My mom served the pasta and chicken. Mr. Mars and Julia complimented the food tenfold. Audrilily complained that she didn't like it. Mr. Mars tried to make her eat it, saying that she was being 'rude', but the little girl just fussed. My mom chuckled, saying that she knew what it was like to raise young kids, so she went inside to microwave some chicken nuggets for her.

Most of the conversations that took place were between my parents and Mr. Mars, with mild interruptions from Audrilily and a little bit of input from Julia and myself. I couldn't help but keep looking at her, but each time I did, I noticed that her eyes weren't on mine. Even when I thought she was looking in my direction and I glanced her way, I saw that she wasn't.

My mom and I undressed the table when everyone was finished and my dad started up a pot of coffee. Mr. Mars opened his bakery box to reveal a chocolate-glazed cheesecake. Audrilily started pouting, saying that she didn't like it. Mr. Mars groaned. "Audrey, it's not like Mrs. Goldsworthy can make you a whole new dessert like she did for dinner."

"But I don't _like_ cheesecake!" She whined.

Mr. Mars groaned and looked apologetically at my parents. "I'm sorry. She's usually a good girl. She's just a picky eater."

"It's okay," My mom said. "If you want, I can go pick something up for her?"

"No, don't," He shook his head, looking back at Julia. "Jewels?"

"Yeah?" She asked, sitting attentively at the table.

"Can you go back to our house and get Audrey's cookies?"

Her response nearly made me drop the stack of plates in my hands. "Can Elijah come with me?"

I looked up at my mom, who was taking the dishes from my hands. She smiled. "Of course!"

Julia smiled, content, but still didn't look me in the eyes. She stood up and waved me in her direction. I followed.

The three-inch heel on her platform boots made her walk a little slow, and still, we walked in silence. Halfway across the street, I spoke. "Why did you ask me to come with you?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "I want to get to know you?"

"If you want to get to know me, then why didn't you come with us the other day when we asked you to?"

She smirked. "Because I want to get to know _you_ before I get to know your friends."

I stared at her. "Okay?"

"I think my dad left the cookies in the hearse."

I blinked. "He drives a hearse?"

"He's a mortician, remember?" She cocked an eyebrow as we approached the garage.

"I didn't know that meant he drove the funeral cars, too," I admitted.

"Well, he doesn't usually," She clarified, grabbing for the bottom handle of the garage door. "But we he's certified for driving one, so in case they need a hearse driver short-notice, they have my dad on speed dial." As she opened the door, the hearse in question came into view. It was bigger than a regular car, with a kind of dull black paint job. Its top was soft with silver black handles on both sides. It was pretty typical, as far as funeral cars go, and it seemed to be in good shape.

"Plus," She added with a sly smile. "It's great for grocery shopping. It doesn't have a backseat."

"Why not?"

She strolled towards it. "It's made to hold a coffin, so it's just a big empty space. Holds a lot of bags." She grabbed for the swinging doors on the back. "I'd know. I come back here sometimes when things are rough in my house." And she started crawling inside.

I followed after her. "Close the doors?" She asked, and I did. The space was, empty, though. Void of any grocery bags. She kept looking through the crevices, though. "I'm glad you came here with me."

"You are _really _confusing." I shook my head.

She cocked her head to the side, and in the barely-lit spacious back of the hearse, I could tell that her eyes were on mine. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you rejected us—"

"I didn't _reject_ you," She corrected. "I just didn't want to have to hang out with you for the first time while you were with your friend and girlfriend."

My eyebrows rose. "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, that little black-haired girl?" She said. "She was looking at you like you're some sort of idol."

I shook my head. "Emily and I aren't dating."

"And the blonde…?"

"I don't have a girlfriend." I grumbled.

She smirked. "Figures."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She gave a shrug. "You seem weird. Most girls don't go for weird."

My eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talki—"

"Well?" She raised a brow. "Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

"…No…"

"Ever even kissed a girl?"

"Yes." I lied immediately.

She smirked. "You're lying."

I hoped that she couldn't see my blushing in the darkness. "Am not."

"Oh yeah?" She mused. "Prove it."

I stared at her for a moment. I saw the smile touch her pouty lips, more and more self-satisfied as I sat there, dumbfounded. On an impulse, I moved forward, crawling over the scratchy carpet flooring so that I could place a hand next to her hip. I propelled myself up, pressing my lips to hers.

I felt her gasp a bit and smirked, kissing her. I kind of liked knowing that it surprised her. She smiled, her hands moving up into my hair, playing with it a bit as our lips moved together for a few moments, back and forth.

Finally, I backed off, sitting next to her so that we were shoulder-to-shoulder. For once, she was shorter than me, even if it was only bit a smidgen. "See?"

She laughed and peeled herself off of the side wall of the car. "Point taken. Come on. The cookies aren't in here."

"Well, I can see that," I smirked.

She shook her head. "No, I mean, I knew they weren't from the start." She pushed open the back doors.

I blinked, staring after her. "Wait, then, why did you bring me back here?"

"To get something else that I was looking for." She back at me. "And I did." With that, she hopped out of the car.


End file.
